The research program is concerned with the following four problems: (1) the form of encoding of pictorial and verbal material in long-term memory, and the functional significance of the proposed dual codes (visual and verbal) for such material; (2) comparison and search processes between items in short-term memory and those in a visual display; (3) laterality effects in short-term memory comparisons of faces, names, and cross-modal comparisons as a function of visual field of presentation; and (4) forms of encoding and comparison of linguistic materials for simultaneous and successive comparisons. In problem (1), we have found evidence for dual-coding of both words and pictures and have tested the notion that spatial memory is superior for visual codes and temporal memory is superior for verbal codes with ambiguous results to date. For problem (2) we have compared a wide range of serieal and parallel models for item comparisons, and have generaly found serial self-terminating models to fit the various experimental paradigms better. For problem (3), which is still in pilot stages, we have found some evidence for dual encoding, by hemisphere, of name and face stimuli, thereby leading to faster face comparison in the right hemisphere and faster name comparisons in the left hemisphere. For problem (4), pronunciation differences in deciding either whether two words have the same stem or whether two words are identical, have no effect for simultaneous presentation of word pairs, and we are presently testing the effect for successive presentations.